Livni: Anti-Semitism should be top priority

February 12, 2007 10:00am

Israel’s foreign minister told a Jerusalem gathering that fighting anti-Semitism must be Israel’s top priority. “Who would have believed that only 60 years after the Holocaust, after the world swore ‘never again,’ we will still stand and have to address the threat of racism and anti-Semitism?” Tzipi Livni told some 160 participants at the Global Forum for Combating anti-Semitism, adding that “something must be done immediately.” The forum, which took place Sunday and Monday in Jerusalem, included representatives of Jewish communities from around the world. Malcolm Hoenlein, executive vice chairman of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, said a society is not measured by whether or not it has anti-Semitism but by how its leaders deal with it. “The greatest danger to the Jews is the apathy and indifference occurring around them,” he said. “The future of our children and grandchildren is at risk.”